A random sampling of the world's most successful people will show one common trait: a love of reading. Reading is the easiest way to <a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-athletes-way/201401/reading-fiction-improves-brain-connectivity-and-function">continue the learning process </a>, <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2013/oct/08/literary-fiction-improves-empathy-study">increase empathy </a>, <a href="http://www.sparringmind.com/creative-thinking/">boost creativity </a>, and even just <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ibCtsHgz3Y">unwind from a long day </a>. But books can also change the way we think and live.

Warren Buffett, who <a href="https://www.farnamstreetblog.com/2013/05/the-buffett-formula-how-to-get-smarter/">says he spends 80% of his time </a>reading and writing, attributes a huge amount of his success to a single book: The Intelligent Investor , by his mentor Benjamin Graham. For Malcolm Gladwell, it was Richard Nisbett's The Person and the Situation <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/06/books/review/malcolm-gladwell-by-the-book.html">that inspired his string </a>of New York Times bestselling books. These are what economist Tyler Cowen calls " <a href="http://ryanholiday.net/quake-reading/">quake books </a>"-pieces of writing that are so powerful they shake up your entire worldview.

As author and avid reader <a href="http://ryanholiday.net/how-to-read-more-a-lot-more/">Ryan Holiday explains </a>: "Whatever problem you're struggling with is probably addressed in some book somewhere written by someone a lot smarter than you." Every story has been experienced, recorded, and published by someone at some point in time. Beyond just stories, books provide life lessons-a set of proven theories and anecdotes that you can apply to your own life. So there's the why of reading, but what about the how ? Too often we get through a book, flip the last page, sit back, and think, "What the hell did I just read?" Reading and being able to use what you've read are completely different things.

A random sampling of the world's most successful people will show one common trait: a love of reading. Reading is the easiest way to continue the learning process, increase empathy, boost creativity, and even just unwind from a long day. But books can also change the way we think and live.

Reading with intention can change your life

paul